


the purpose of a Knight

by templemarker



Category: Women's Hockey RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 22:25:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5603191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/templemarker/pseuds/templemarker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Yeah, and it was your <i>favor</i>," Hilary said. She was going to have to explain it. Damn. </p><p>"Which I gave...to you?" Julie tried out. </p><p>"Exactly!" Hilary said triumphantly. "You gave me your favor! And I won! Well, we won."</p>
            </blockquote>





	the purpose of a Knight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lostlenore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostlenore/gifts).



> Happy holidays, lostlenore! I adapted one of your prompts, Sorkin-style. I hope you enjoy it! 
> 
> Note that this takes place shortly following the 2013 IIHF Women's Worlds in Ottawa, Canada.

Julie looked down at the thing in front of her. 

"What's this?" she asked, definitely confused and totally less impressed than Hilary was going for. 

"You don't get it?" Hilary felt her face fall a little bit, and pushed her disappointment back to keep smiling at Chuey. 

"I--maybe?" Julie said, in the kind of voice she used when she wanted to encourage you to keep doing suicides but was actually disappointed in your efforts for the team. 

Hilary blew out a breath, causing the stray hair from her ponytail to float between them for a minute. "It's a favor."

Julie looked down and then back up again. "It's a scarf. It's the scarf I made you last Christmas."

"Yeah, and it was your _favor_ ," Hilary said. She was going to have to explain it. Damn. 

"Which I gave...to you?" Julie tried out. 

"Exactly!" Hilary said triumphantly. "You gave me your favor! And I won! Well, we won."

"Worlds. Because we got the gold," Julie said, confirming what Hilary meant. Which should have been obvious, they were still in Ottawa. 

" _I got you the gold_ ," Hilary stage-whispered. "So I won. With your favor."

Julie looked confused again. "But Amanda scored the game-winning goal."

"And we won!"

"I--yes. We did. I know. I was there."

"So--I won!"

"But--"

"Oh my god, fine, I scored the game-winner against Finland, which broke us out of the semi-finals into the finals. So I got us into the position where A-Kess, Bozie, and Decker could score. So. We won. I won. I won with your favor."

There was a silence. It felt confused. Still. 

"So we--you--won the tournament. And you won it with my favor. And this is important, because," Julie said, getting to the end and clearly leaving it open for Hilary to explain. Which evidently she would have to do for this thing to go anywhere. 

"Because I am your _Knight_ ," Hilary said. It was so obvious. 

"Oh my god," Julie said. "You did not just do that."

"What?" Hilary said. Now she was confused. 

"You did not just give me back the scarf I made for you _as a Christmas present_ with a tortured metaphor to make a _pun_ about your last name," Julie said, her voice getting irritated with each world. Which was definitely not the way Hilary wanted this to go. She seriously thought she would have at least gotten a kiss from her lady by now. 

"I don't think it's a pun," Hilary said. "I'm making a very important point. You are right on about the metaphor, though is it really an allusion if I'm being serious?"

"You're not being serious," Julie pointed out. 

"I am being very serious!" Hilary insisted. "I am, after all, a Knight. And you are my lady."

Julie rubbed at her forehead. "I really did not get enough coffee in the mess hall to follow you on this," she said. 

Hilary took her hand. "It meant a lot to me, when you gave me that scarf."

Julie blushed a little. "I mean, I messed up in a few places," she confessed. "I'm not sure I wove the ends in properly and I didn't get a chance to pin it out so the corners aren't perfect--"

"I love it," Hilary insisted, squeezing Julie's hand. "Because you made it, and because you made it for me. It's perfect."

"Hilary," Julie said, a little shy, tucking her fingers between Hilary's, palms warm against each other. 

"You gave me your favor, and I wore it all through winter. I kept it with me, and I brought it here to Worlds, and played, with my lady, and won. We won. Together. I'm not giving back my favor," Hilary said, rubbing her thumb along Julie's knuckles. "It's mine, You gave it to me, so it's mine forever. But I wanted you to know." Hilary took a deep breath in. "I wanted you to know that I did it for you. I mean, not completely, because this is Worlds and the Olympics and they are very important to me personally and professionally and are measures of my performance. But other than that, I did it for you, because you're my lady and my Captain and our leader, because you saw that we could do this, and pushed us there. Because you love us." Hilary took in another deep breath. "Because you love me."

Julie was blushing furiously by this point, and HIlary wanted to take her free hand and smooth it all over Julie's warm cheeks, so she did.

"You're my knight in shining molded foam," Julie whispered, sounding a little choked up. 

"Yeah, babe," Hilary said, smiling, because Julie finally got it. "I'm your Knight."

Best of all, she got her Lady's kiss, so really the whole thing worked out.

**Author's Note:**

>  _The very purpose of a knight is to fight on behalf of a lady._  
>  ― **Thomas Malory**


End file.
